IDA KLEITERP (1948) SCULPTOR, AMSTERDAM (NL)

ARIEL Symposium Steine und Pflanzen am Wasser Ariel, a red sandstone of 12 tons, is lying at a open spot on the bank of the river Saar, vigilant. It is an organic form, an arrangement of volumes, a reclining physical presence with an alert and peaceful aura. With great pleasure I have worked on this stone. At the beginning everything was new to me. I had never worked sandstone before nor had I seen the stone itself and I was unfamiliar with the landsape more over. I had not made a draft or sketch in advance because I wanted to meet the situation with an open mind and thus I hoped to achieve a satisfactory result within six weeks. The theme stones and plants fitted in perfectly with a series of stone flower and leave forms on which I have been working over the past years. Together the sculptures form a "flower-island" with the underlying theme of vulnerability and transitoriness. Step by step I worked the stone on all sides with hammer and chisel. The skin of the sculpture came alive, under the marks of the chisel yellow spots, red and white dots and black lines appeared on the surface. The sculpture's form became surprising from all sides. As with a human being, one could not guess what the person would look like at the front when looking at it from the back. This sculpture is the largest i made sofar. Itfitsin with the track of sculptures carved on the spot from local stones in different countries. My 'sculpture trail' runs through the world from a sculpture under a mango tree in Nueva Gerona in Cuba to one at a square in front of the townhall in Castropol in Spain, via a sculpture in the Emmapark in Amsterdam, the Netherlands to Ariel on the bank of the river Saar near Harlingen in Germany. Amsterdam, 6. Oktober 1998 Ida Kleiterp